Little John Lakes – 3rd February 2019

Seven brave Radcliffe anglers turned up for the 6th round of the Winter League, joined by four equally hardy Bingham anglers.

Although the temperature was predicted to be as low as -6 degrees, we were assured by the fishery owner that his spinners would keep the lake ice free . . . ! Sadly, this was not the case and upon arriving we were greeted with the owner frantically boating around the lake breaking the ice. But the match went ahead, with some anglers having more ice-free water to fish than others.

Mark won the match after a few carp moved into his peg (number 10) after a couple of hours of nothing. He dobbed bread to the island, fishing about a foot off the deck. Things did get a bit tricky after he hooked a carp at the precise moment that a huge piece of ice drifted into his swim. But, after a lot of pole manoeuvring, the fish was safely landed!

Barry made a rare appearance and took second place from peg 18. He caught in the final two hours on the bomb, cast into the gap between two islands.

Visitor Dale was on peg 9 and caught three carp at 7 metres on the deck, with one of these carp estimated at 12lb.